No Bake Valentine Lips

Lip smacking good and an embarrassingly EASY treat! When I say "no bake" I mean YOU don't have to bake them. That part (plus the clean up, yay!!!) is already done by bakery elves!

I spied these rolls a couple of years ago and vowed to make them into a Valentine's Day project. Sadly I didn't get around to it until now. Wouldn't they make a great breakfast surprise filled with sliced strawberries and whipped cream? Did I mention that they are a whopping 5 x 7 inches? Huge!!!

The rolls (Bolillios) are sold year round in the bakery department at Walmart so if you wanted to do a glam party at some point in your life, you'd be all set. They also come in a whole wheat version. The six pack is only $1.98 so it was an inexpensive experiment. Worst case if it all went terribly wrong still left me with rolls and ganache. You know. To coat my dry lips. No brainer.

A glaze of ganache using these cherry chips and heavy cream was all I planned on when I started.

The plastic squeeze bottle was an easy way to flood the roll and reheat in the microwave between rolls. Dipping may also work but you might have to draw a lip line in the center with a knife before it sets.

Here they are before the glaze. All rough and dry and cracked. Poor rolls. Pucker up! Time for a quenching, sugary glaze!!!

But alas. The coating only seemed to accentuate the rough surface and cracked slightly while drying.

My lips are usually cracked and dry this time of year. No matter how much water (or butter) passes over them or lip gloss coats them. So I was more than sympathetic with the rolls. Although I can't seem to fix my own lips, I was confident I could do more for these.

I tried dry brushing luster dust over the dried ganache but it only added to the crackled effect.

So I grabbed some disco glitter and went to town. You'll have to decide whether some fine glitter is for you since it's non toxic rather than edible. The smallest amount goes a loooong way.

These three were my favorites.

And here is the whole gang.

My VERY favorite is the red. Classic.

Get your glitter gloss on and have a Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Skull Day of the Dead Ouija Board Cake

How was your Halloween? Hoping it was great and that your bag (or bags, don't judge) of sweets are overflowing!

White almond cake with raspberry "blood" inside and a buttercream exterior.

My inspiration was this wall hanging from Joanne's Fabric.

These letters worked just perfectly with black Candy Melts and a light dusting of silk white luster dust.

Used them for this cake as well. Want a set for yourself? They're on sale here!

All is calm . . .

Whatcha doin' on Halloween? It will be anything but a Silent Night around here. I'm already on a sugar high from "sampling" the trick or treat candy bowl. Can't be giving those cute little goblins any bad candy! Or cake. This one has a surprise inside.

There was a little contest for guessing what I used to mold the moon. I was tossing some paper into the recycle bin and saw the bottom of a recently emptied Diet Pepsi can. I now have a whole new appreciation for every day objects. Exactly the curve I was looking for!

Lined it with a small piece of foil and filled it with melted white chocolate and off to the freezer to wait.

It actually worked! Love the lines and texture created by the foil. Which was impossible to smooth. Or maybe I didn't have the patience needed to remove all the wrinkles. Either way, it made for a perfect surface to lightly dust for moon shadows.

I'm sad to report that on the trip to the office with my husband as the delivery boy, the cake was just heavy enough to set off the seatbelt alarm. It won't stop until you buckle and so . . . the seatbelt strap MAY have had some black frosting and red ganache adhered to it when he returned home. I have no idea how bad the damage was but his coworkers didn't seem to mind. Arggggh!!! The help these days! At least he doesn't charge much. I may have to dock his pay nonetheless.

Happy haunting!!!

Fabulous Finds Alphabet and Number Sprinkles!

Have you always been in love with alphabet pasta? No? You may want to stop reading now and go back to your normal life.

Years ago I found some colored abc pasta at an educational supply store but could never track down whether or not the dyes they used were food safe. You'd think so, wouldn't you? But, playing it safe, I never used them for anything but arts and crafts.

Then along come these brightly colored completely edible sprinkles into my life last week. You know. Sprinkles. Sweet. For baking. And decorating. Cakes, cookies? Yes Please. HAD TO have them. And a bag (or 3, don't judge) of their counterpart number set.

At some point I got to wondering if the alphabet was complete or if they'd skipped the more unusual letters like Qs and Zs. Nope. All there. And all recognizable as the letters they were born to be. 

And then I started wondering how many complete alphabets might be in one bag. Like you do. 

Anywho . . . I sorted them. Into little muffin cups. And counted some of them. Okay. Only the A's and U's and V's and Y's. I'm not COMPLETELY nuts. Yet.

The U's, V's and Y's seemed to have the fewest in their piles. The A's seemed to have the most of all the letters, a whopping 178! The others came in at 19, 21 and 17 respectively. So one could, in theory, assemble at least 19 complete alphabets from one bag for $2.98. Assuming the bags are all the same.

Did I mention that they are tiny? Only about 1/4" tall and wide. Except the E's and F's. They are impossibly skinny and it's a miracle they made it through with all of their limbs still attached.

You'll be happy to know that the number set is just as adorable. Both sets use the same five bright colors and there is a mix of colors per shape. In other words, not all A's are red. Some are blue. Some are green or yellow or orange.

The only negatives are that some of the letters are thicker than others and have other things attached to them. Maybe their umbilical cords? Most are near perfect which was a happy surprise.

One small bag of the letters weighs 2.6 oz which is just about 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon or 75 grams. The broken pieces/parts weighed in at 3/8 oz after sorting which was about 1 tablespoon plus 3/4 teaspoon or 11 grams. Overall not too bad. Perhaps I was expecting the worse.

Found it amusing that the ingredients were different for the numbers vs. the alphabet. Recipe change perhaps?

I can't imagine the machinery or process for this but I'd love to see it on "How It's Made" sometime. I know. I'm insane AND boring. And yet a WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE aka "alphabet sprinkle EXPERT" now. Want to know how to get your own Alphabet Sprinkles and Numbers Sprinkles? Or for more of a bargain look for the larger sizes! (UPDATE: just learned that GYGI carries them if you live near SLC. YAY!!!) Thank you. Thank you very much.

Mini pies & donuts

The cuteness got me. This little cherry pie stole my heart the very moment it was born. I swaddled it in cellophane and fashioned a name tag and bow 'cuz every adorable baby needs the basics.

But I didn't stop at cherry. Oh no.

 Apple sounded nice. With oatmeal crumble on top.

 And blueberry looked so sweet it had to make an appearance in the lineup.

Wasn't sure if the peach cranberry would be a good combo but they got along famously.

Blackberry. Oh Blackberry. Some had frangipane filling but the ones without were every bit as delicious.

Raspberry lemon in a raspberry crust since summer is just around the corner and what could be more refreshing?

Each little pie is less than two inches wide and fit perfectly in these two inch square cello bags.

Group selfie. I only "swaddled" 144 of the 432 total pies. They were a special surprise for my daughter to take to her  office and were gone in a flash. The rest just sort of disappeared over the next few days.

And then it was National Donut Day. Couldn't help myself from making a few hundred of these adorable and tasty minis. 

Both confections are only bite sized. Tiny really. The mini donuts were also less than two inches across. And yet still not so great for diets. It's soooo very easy to pop 3 or 14 in your mouth before you know it. How does that happen? Didn't help that each recipe made a lot and that I wanted to try a lot of flavors.

Like chocolate with chocolate glaze and chocolate sprinkles.

And the classic cinnamon sugar. So tender and yummy!

Couldn't leave powdered sugar out of the group.

And a Biscoff cookie coating with 3 sugars.

All packed up and ready to go! Can't wait to try more flavors!!!